This report indicates broad support for the creation of Local Enterprise Partnerships as a way of addressing local growth. In particular the potential of LEPs to offer a greater focus on local economic needs, and build on the affinity between business, local government and other partners at a local level is recognised. Whilst it is right that LEPs should compete at certain levels it is equally important for them to collaborate, particularly with the Regional Development Agencies, where it makes economic sense. Local Enterprise Partnerships are being introduced quickly and at a time of greatly constrained public funding. There is concern that in the short term LEPs will need know how and powers and in some cases financial resources to make a positive difference. Government will need to be willing to devolve power to LEPs and in certain cases be willing to support LEPs at inception. If LEPs are to be a success, the Department's transition team will need to focus in three areas: retain RDA know-how, realising the full potential of RDA assets, and leveraging potential EU funding

This book presents the key interactions in local government and public enterprise, drawing together the challenges for local governance in the practice of public entrepreneurship and its response to collaboration, place and place making. Specifically, this book includes the impact of local partnerships and public entrepreneurs in local policy implementation. It is written by established authors bringing together their experience and practice of local partnerships and public entrepreneurship in place-based strategies, and will be of value to local government, new forms of enterprise partnerships, wider agencies and public entrepreneurship scholars as well as policymakers responsible for implementation of place-based regeneration. This text will be of key interest to students, scholars and practitioners in public administration, business administration, local government, entrepreneurship, public sector management and more broadly to those with interests in public policy, business and management, political science, economics, urban studies and geography.

Growing a successful business is about meeting the needs of customers—and, by extension, the needs of the entire community. Turn your business into a good citizen and you can help ensure its success and contribute to making your community a great place to live and work. Growing Local Value shows how to build a values-driven business that is deeply embedded in local life. Drawing on real-world examples from Greyston Bakery, Wild Planet Toys, Powell's Books, and many other companies, Laury Hammel and Gun Denhart show how you can leverage every aspect of your business—from product creation to employee recruitment, vendor selection, and raising capital—to benefit both the community and the bottom line. Growing Local Value explores in depth how your business can contribute to its community—and the benefits it will receive when it does.

In 2010, the Government set out a new approach for local economic growth, in the White Paper Local growth: realising every place's potential. This involved the closure of the Regional Development Agencies and their replacement with new local growth organizations and funds, such as Local Enterprise Partnerships and the Regional Growth Fund. Three years on from this initial announcement, the new Local Enterprise Partnerships and Enterprise Zones are taking shape. However, Local Enterprise Partnerships are making progress at different rates. The Growing Places Fund, Enterprise Zones and the Regional Growth Fund have also been slow to create jobs and face a significant challenge to produce the number of jobs expected. The estimate of jobs to be created by Enterprise Zones by 2015 has dropped from 54,000 to between 6,000 and 18,000. There is also no plan to measure outcomes or evaluate performance comparably across the range of different local growth programmes. Departments cannot therefore show value for money across the programme of local growth initiatives or be sure about where to direct their resources. The new local programmes were not established in time to avoid a significant dip in local growth funds and jobs created. Direct central government spending on local economic growth through the initiatives fell from £1,461 million in 2010-11 to £273 million in 2012-13, but will rise to £1,714 million in 2014-15. Central government needs to plan such reorganizations more effectively, to ensure that sufficient capacity is in place both centrally and locally to oversee initiatives and that accountability is clear

Public-private partnerships are becoming increasingly important in the local economic development efforts of many cities. This collection of essays compares U.S. cities with those in western Europe. Conceptual issues are discussed, and comparisons at the city level illustrate the process, pitfalls, and results of such partnerships. Readers will be able to understand the types of partnership arrangements used in each country. Factors contributing to the success of these arrangements are discussed and compared. Scholars and students of local economic development and public finance, as well as public officials and economic development practitioners will benefit from the unique comparative framework used in this volume.